EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – Now, after the winter of the Lakers’ discontent… a summer that doesn’t look like three months at the beach, either.
It was grisly to the end, which was even worse than the beginning, when the lowly Mavs beat them opening night in Staples, then they lost Steve Nash the next night in a loss at Portland.
How would you like to be Mike D’Antoni, taking over at 5-6, with his point guard out until Dec. 22 … only

Monday’s headlines were dominated by Jason Collins’ decision to open up about his sexual orientation, which opened up the door for athletes everywhere to be able to do the same one day. For the most part, there was wide-spread support around the league about his decision.
Jason Collins reveals he is gay
Emeka Okafor was one of the first to know that Collins would break the news nationally, from Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports:
“The Washington Wizards’ Emeka Okafor had no idea

Before Game 4 of their Western Conference first-round series against the San Antonio Spurs, the Los Angeles Lakers handed out white towels to fans at the Staples Center.
Apparently, someone in the marketing department didn’t understand symbolism. By halftime, those towels had become flags of surrender for the Lakers, the biggest underachieving team in the history of the NBA.
Dwight Howard offered his own symbolism, figuratively throwing in the towel midway through the third quarter. Unwilling to grit his teeth and bang

I have been sounding like a broken record talking about Prop 30, the so-called millionaire’s tax, that was adopted by voters last fall in California and levies a 10 percent surcharge on the state’s highest earners. This tax negates whatever financial advantage the Lakers would have in being able to offer larger annual raises to Howard to convince him to stay in Los Angeles.

California has a new millionaire’s tax, an item known as Prop 30 that was passed by voters last fall. The state takes 10 percent if you make beaucoup bucks and live in L.A., which many expect Dwight Howard to do for the next 5 years.
Texas, on the other hand, has no state income tax. And Texas also happens to be the home of the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets, two of the teams that will be courting Howard when he

The Celtics aren’t done yet. Despite blowing a 20-point lead, Boston hung in there to pull out an OT win and send the series back to New York for Game 5.
The Bucks and Lakers, on the other hand, are done. The Lakers never had much of a chance without Kobe Bryant, and the Bucks got stuck by the wrecking ball known as the Heat.
Speaking of the Bucks, here’s a column from Chris Sheridan that questions whether Brandon Jennings is

There is an alternate universe somewhere in which the Lakers stayed healthy, and people still speak of them as Finals contenders.
Must be a nice place.
Friday night at Staples Center, the Lakers took the floor short Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Steve Blake, and Jodie Meeks, with Metta World Peace playing one-legged after having fluid drained from his surgically repaired left knee earlier that afternoon, and a starting backcourt consisting of a point guard who should have just finished his senior season